Crazy 88

Caught an INSANE number of gills this morning ….. 88 total in just over 3 hours ! And the crazy part is I caught 77 of them in about an hour !! Probably my best morning EVER !

Tied on a 1/32 oz jig head tipped with my latest favorite bait, salted shrimp, slung under a new Slip Lock bobber, with a Smart Stop bobber stop set at 4 feet, and a Bad Bead I recently ordered from someone on here ..... The name escapes me now, but I will report back, and do a separate review of these items in the near future.

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Anyway, was usin a 8 foot BP Crappie Max rod, spooled with 4 pound Hi-Vis Slimeline, bobber, swivel, and 4 pound mono leader.

Left the dock at 6:25 am, stiff breeze from the north west, showers and a bit of thunder ..... Killed an hour on some shallow haunts with very limited success, only 3 or 4 dinks. Moved on to a shady, deep channel cut bank when the sky cleared. Fished about 3/4 of the way up the bank, adding 6 or 7 more "keepers" to the total, after I reset the stop at about 12 feet.

At about 8:30 am, dreaming of breakfast, I was almost to the end of the run, where the dam cuts the channel off, and BAM, it was like a switch was flipped ….. One after another, after another ….. I spot locked, and jogged this one small area, maybe 30 or 40 yards long, over 25 to 30 FOW, on both sides of a floating dock.

I counted to the best of my math abilities, and I came up with 77 just in this spot alone, between 8:30, and 9:40, when I had to quit cause I couldn't feel my hand anymore !!! What a predicament !!!

The salted shrimp came through once again, and loaded onto a jig head instead of a circle, or Aberdeen hook, virtually eliminated any swallowin of the hook. Thank you deathb4disco for that tip !!!

If it wasn't for stopping to take pics, I could have had MANY more ! All fish were released unharmed this time, as I didn't have the time to deal with cleanin em today.

Speakin of pics, here's a gallery of some of the participants in this mornings excursion.

Thanks for lookin.

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Sounds like a once in a lifetime adventure, but I hope not.
Great pics, thanks.

Great catch and in the middle of summer no less !!

What a good day for you, great pics, Congrats!

Congrats on some fine catches for sure...
I read your thread the other day and decided to try it. Went and bought some frozen pre cooked salad shrimp, put them in water, in the bag to thaw. Cut them in small pieces as suggested, when thawed, placed in a zip lock with just enough water to expose just the top of the top ones. Drained the water into a bowl and put a lot, like 10 soup spoons, of salt into the water and attempted to dissolve the salt. After 45 min. of mixing , I gave up and poured the mixture over the shrimp and placed in the cold box sealed up. In the morning drained the water, This was about 23 hrs time, and went fishing at a usual spot known to have a lot of gills. Well, after about 2 hours I didn't have no gills, but had plenty of snapping turtles caught and released, or they snapped of...
Upon returning home, they went back into the refridge to try another day in another spot...maybe next time.

Good looking Gills, that Shrimp is really working for you. I may give it a try this Fall.

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Originally Posted by Jamesdean

Congrats on some fine catches for sure...
I read your thread the other day and decided to try it. Went and bought some frozen pre cooked salad shrimp, put them in water, in the bag to thaw. Cut them in small pieces as suggested, when thawed, placed in a zip lock with just enough water to expose just the top of the top ones. Drained the water into a bowl and put a lot, like 10 soup spoons, of salt into the water and attempted to dissolve the salt. After 45 min. of mixing , I gave up and poured the mixture over the shrimp and placed in the cold box sealed up. In the morning drained the water, This was about 23 hrs time, and went fishing at a usual spot known to have a lot of gills. Well, after about 2 hours I didn't have no gills, but had plenty of snapping turtles caught and released, or they snapped of...
Upon returning home, they went back into the refridge to try another day in another spot...maybe next time.

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I don't know if it would make much difference, but the way I did it was, first drain the liquid, cut the shrimp up, put it in a ziplock, and added a tablespoon of garlic powder with a couple of handfuls of salt, mixed and let it marinate overnight.

The consistency was very "grainy", almost like a sandy slurry, and the salt seems to pull the juices out, and I had to drain it a couple more times. It's amazing how much liquid comes out.

Then I split the pound of nuggets into 5 different snack sized ziplock baggies, and popped them in the freezer for future use.

Also, I accidentally left a bag out in the sun ALL DAY, and to my surprise, they actually cooked slightly, turning pink and much harder than before, makin them stay on the hook MUCH better. In fact, they were so much firmer, that it was hard to push the small hook through the meat. It worked so good, I did this with the remaining bags this past weekend, but they are almost gone !

I cut up and made a new batch this morning, and plan to pop em in the microwave for a minute or two to try and duplicate the "solar cooking".

Hope this helps, and good luck.

Awesome day! I’m going to have to try the shrimp trip out also.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

that sure was a good day of catching. Thanks for the tip on the shrimp.

I would like to hear more about the bobber.

Sent from my E6810 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Originally Posted by catchNgrease

I would like to hear more about the bobber.

Sent from my E6810 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Someone here mentioned these on this site, and I tracked them down here http://www.clearlyoutdoors.com/ I have no affiliation with this company.

I've been usin the bobbers, stops and bad beads almost daily for over a week, and I love them ! I am planning to do a full review on these next week, but here is a quick rundown …..

The Slip Lock bobbers are awesome ! They go on and off easily without havin to cut, or retie your line. They seem pretty durable, and have had zero problems with them. The bobber slides very freely up and down the line, better than the traditional slip bobbers I've been usin. If you like slip bobber fishin, you'll love em !

The Smart Stop Micro bobber stops are pretty awesome as well. They hold position very nicely on 6 pound and above line, but not so much on the 4 pound Slimeline I've used it on. I haven't tried it on any other 4 pound lines yet. They were kinda fiddley getting the first few on, but I quickly got the hang of properly installing them. Needle nose pliers are needed to use these, but I carry pliers on the boat anyway, so ….. Also, they seem to slip through the eyelets better than other stops I've used.

The Bad Beads are really unnecessary, but they work very well as a stationary bead. I use them for a bead stop above the swivle, to keep the eye on the swivle from jammin into the bottom of the bobber. See attached pics. Just like the bobbers they are easily installed, and removed with no tools, or retieing.

Hope this helps.

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